Station-indicator.



Patented Ont.v 28, I902.

J. DJVKNEEIJLER. STATION INDICATOR.

A pncaion fi1ed Dec..80, 1901.,

A/ext Sweet m I== m (No Model.)

' amut M112 Ewedki:

, scription of the invention, such as will en- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN DEAM KNEEDLER, OF SIOUX CITY, IOWA.

STATIONQ'INDICATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 712,143, dated October 28, 1902.

Application filed December so, 1901. Serial no. 87,673. No model) T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN DEAM KNEEDLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at SiouxCity, in the county of Woodbury and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Street or Station Indicators; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact deable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to an automatic street or station indicator; and my object is to provide an indicator which will be found reliably efficient and useful not only upon street-cars to designate the different streets in advance of reaching the same, but will also be found a valuable and important. addition to a railway-car, whereby the stations as they are approached may be indicated to the passengers.

Other objects and advantages will be made clearly apparent from the followingspecification, considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a Vertical section of my improved indicator,with parts shown in elevation. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken at right angles to Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a front elevation showing the front side of the casing employed to house and protect the interior parts of my indicator. Fig. 4 is a perspective detail view of the preferred form of clutch mechanism employed by me to reverse the movement of the sheet of paper or the like containing a list of the names of streets or stations, as the case may be.

In the following specification I will confine my description to the mechanism employed in the indicator proper, it being understood that I reserve the right to drive or actuate said mechanism either by means of a sprocketchain or the equivalent thereof extending into connection with an electric motor or connected to the driving-wheel of any suitable mechanical motor or driving mechanism.

In carrying out my invention'I provide a suitable casing, as indicated by the numeral 1, the size and shape of the said casing being determined by the needs in each case, it being understood that the said casing is to be of suitable size to house and protect the interior mechanism of my indicator proper. In the casing thus or otherwise provided I form in the front side an opening, as indicated by the numeral 2, which is preferably covered with glassand through which a portion of the sheet of paper or the like may be rendered visible, thus displaying the name of the station or street to the passenger. The said casing is to be connected at any pointin the car where it will be rendered visible to the passengers. I journal in suitable bearings provided in the walls of the casing the drivingshaft 3, the inner end of which is supported and sustained in its operative position by the partition 4, properly connected to the casing. The cooperating'shafts 5 and 6 each pass through the partition 4: and are provided at their inner ends, respectively, with the gears 7 and 8, designed to mesh with the driving-gear 9, loosely mounted upon the driving-shaft 3, as will be hereinafter particularly-pointed out. The outer end of the driving-shaft 3 has rigidly secured thereto the sprocket-wheel 10, adapted to be placed incommunication bya suitable sprocket-chain or belting with the electric motor or other source of power employed to actuate the same. At its inner end the drivingshaft is pr'ovided'with the pin 11, which extends entirely through the same and is rigidly secured in position. The said pin 11 is designed to cooperate with the inclined faces 12 of the sleeve 13, which forms an integral part of the gear 9, as more clearly indicated in Fig. 5. The gear 9, with its accompanying sleeve, is disposed loosely upon the shaft 3 and is held normally inward by the spring 14:, and it is therefore obvious that when the power is delivered to the shaft 3'in such a manner as to drive said shaftin the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1 the result will be that the ends of the pin 11 will ride down the inclined faces 12 until they engage the posts 15, which will insure, by means of the cooperation of the spring 14, that the gear 9 will be so turned as to turn the gear in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1. Since the rollers 5 and 6 are designed to alternately store and pay out the strip of paper or the like employed to give the list of names of the stations or streets, it is obvious that the movement of said rollers may be so timed that that particular portion of the strip of paper containing the name of any given street or station will be moved across the opening 2, whereby such name may be readily determined by the passengers.

Inasmuch as it becomes desirable to insure a perfectly automatic action of my indicator and that all of the names of the stations or streets will be unerringly displayed during the return trip of the car without the necessity of any attention from an attendant, I have provided suitable mechanism for oppositely rotating said shafts 5 and 6 on the return trip. By reference to Figs. 1 and 5 it i will be observed that when the shaft 3 is turned in the direction opposite to that indicated by the arrow the result will be that the pins 11 will ride up the inclined faces 12 until the post 15 is reached, the result being that the gear 9 will be moved along its shaft out of engagement with the gear 8 and into mesh with the gear 7, the result being that the spring 14 will be compressed, and thus ready to act when the shaft 3 is reversely rotated, as will be obvious by reference to the drawings.

In Fig. 2 I have indicated idler-rollers 24: and 25, properly jonrnaled in a suitable part of the casing and disposed in such position as will insure that the strip of paper or the like 26 will be held outward close to the visionpoint or opening 2.

It will be understood that the various parts of my invention and cooperating accessories may be modified or changed without departing from the spirit of my invention, and I therefore wish to comprehend in this application all substantial equivalents and substitutes that may be considered to fall fairly within the scope of my invention.

The motor and thedriving mechanism therefor not forming any part of the present invention are not herein illustrated, as they may be of any suitable well-known form or construction and operate in any well-known manner.

Having thus described my improved station and street indicator, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a street or station indicator, the combination with a suitable casing and supportingrollers; a sheet of cloth, paper or the like mounted on said rollers and bearing names of streets or stations and means to so drive said rollers that any desired name will be brought to appear through an opening in the casing, a pin on the driving-shaft and the cooperating gear being provided with oppositely-disposed inclined faces and diametrically-disposed posts, and a spring on said shaft acting upon said gear, all combined substantially as specified and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN DEAM KNEEDLER.

Witnesses:

BUEL CoUoH, O. A. KNEEDLER. 

